munication. What was principally remarkable in his case, when he gave in his declinature of the court, and was cited to appear before it next day, was his being accompanied by seven persons who in a tumultuary manner declared their adherence to it, and one of them, John Hastie, a printer in Edinburgh, calling himself officer, pro tempore, to the reformed presbytery, attempted verbally to execute a summons against Mr. Thomson, moderator, Mr. Moncrief, and all the other members of synod, but being interrupted by an inquiry for his warrant, he laid down two papers, copies of a libel against the members of synod, subscribed John Cuthbertson, moderator, and bearing a written summons to compear before the reformed presbytery, in Mr. Macmillan's meeting-house at Braehead, Dalserf, on the sixteenth of February next, subscribed " John Hastie, officer," and by Andrew Boa and Gavin Veitch, as witnesses, who immediately came forward to certify the officer's warrant. On further inquiry, George Brown, and John Brackenrig came also forward, and as elders, avowed themselves members of the reformed presbytery; Messrs. Marshal and Cuthbertson, ministers belonging to that presbytery, were also alleged to be present. They were all of course summoned apud acta to appear before the court next day; and the two latter, from an uncertainty of their being in the house, had also written summonses put into their hands that same evening, None of them appeared next day, but they were proceeded against as contumacious, and the synod solemnly deposed Messrs. Alexander Marshal and John Cuthbertson from the office of the holy ministry, George Brown and John Brackenrig from the office of ruling elders, which offices of the ministry and eldership they pretended to have been invested with, and laid them, together with John Hastie, Andrew Boa, Gavin Veitch, and Alexander Young, under the lesser excommunication, with certification, that unless they made speedy satisfaction, they would be proceeded against with a higher censure, Nothing further was ever done respecting these persons, and it is not a little remarkable, that while the old dissenters have in their Act, Declaration, and Testimony, brought this case of discipline exercised on some of their members particularly forward, and stigmatized it, perhaps very justly, as a wanton prostitution

of church censures, they have carefully concealed the equally ridiculous conduct of their own presbytery which occasioned it, and which could not have been followed out but by similar prostitution.*

Nothing, it might have been supposed, could have been more detrimental to the interests of vital godliness, and especially to the public cause among their hands, than this conduct on the part of the seceders. Faction, personal pique, and self-will, had been liberally charged against them by their enemies, and even by some who were really their friends in the establishment, and now the truth of all these charges was supposed to be amply demonstrated by their conduct towards one another. Instead of that brotherly love, and that bearing of one another's burdens, which had distinguished them amid the many reproaches and privations to which they had been subjected, there seemed to be a disposition very generally to add to that reproach, and to render these privations still more intolerable. Their meeting-houses had not yet been dignified with the name of chapels, nor were they either in respect of external or internal embellishment, worthy to be compared with places that had formerly, or have been latterly so called, but they were such as suited the purpose of the modest builders, and in the then state of the country, had been reared with no little difficulty, and who should first be able to seize upon them, was an object keenly contested between the conflicting parties. In many instances, when it could be accomplished by law, they were taken possession of without the least regard either to reason or justice, so that a number of congregations were most unrighteously cast out into the open fields, and even there, it was but in particular places that by the violence of party rage they could be allowed quietly to enjoy what had been so often and so loudly declared to be the birthright, at least of every British subject, the privilege of worshipping God according to their own consciences, and, as they believed, the light of his word.

Had the ruling faction in the establishment been possessed of

* Act, Declaration, and Testimony, &c. &c. by the Reformed Presbytery, p. 145.

either prudence, or any thing like moderation, they certainly had now a most favourable opportunity for regaining that hold of the affections of the people, which they had been for a long period, by their violence and their folly, so evidently throwing away; but unfortunately they had all along affected to treat the secession with contempt, now they imagined they might do so with more impunity than ever, and instead of yielding in the smallest iota to the wishes of an abused people, seemed to carry their measures every year with a higher hand, and with a more determined and bitter spirit of despotism. They did not take into their account, that though the seceders had been guilty of remarkable imprudencies in their disputes with one another, they had lost none of their abilities-they were as faithful among their people, and as powerful preachers as ever. In all these respects they were probably improved rather than otherwise, by the collision that had taken place; and before their opponents in the establishment were aware, instead of one seceding congregation in one neighbourhood, they had two, furnished with able ministers, equally determined, by diligence and good conduct, to supplant each other as well as the established ministers in the affections of the people, so that contrary to all rational calculation, this melancholy ebullition of passion and prejudice was overruled in a very few years to more than double the number of ministers in the secession at large, and with the assistance of the General Assembly, to triple their congregations.

A decline in the life and power of religion has in all churches, for a time at least, been attended with an apparent increase of zeal for its external forms, and in proportion as the duties of the clerical character became irksome to the possessor, the temporalities attached to it become objects of painful solicitude, and of supreme desire; and it would have been vain to have expected that it should at this period have been otherwise with the church of Scotland. The doctrines of the gospel were disappearing rapidly from her pulpits, where a mongrel harangue, sometimes assuming the garb of philosophy, sometimes that of morality, but akin to neither, was every day becoming more prevalent; equity had in a great measure forsaken her courts, whose decisions had long been wavering, vexatious, partial, and

tyrannical. The sword of discipline she was brandishing in the faces of her faithful children, who would gladly have averted her disgrace, while she cherished in her bosom hollow friends and insidious enemies, who were secretly sapping her very foundations. Yet she ceased not to enact the more frequent administration of the sacrament of the supper, with all its appendages of preparation, to make a pompous parade of respect for her constitution, the regular observance of fundamental laws, and the comfort and edification of her people.

No General Assembly had as yet ventured to say that the patron's presentation was that alone which constituted a call to a congregation. A majority of heritors and elders, it was still pretended, even by the advocates of patronage, was necessary to give it validity. This, however, being supported by all the influence of the government-the members of which, have rarely, if ever, since the dawn of the Reformation, taken any interest in the affairs of the Scotish church, except to enslave her office-bearers, and to corrupt her institutions*—they

* Lord Ilay, late Archibald duke of Argyle, had long been, and was at this time the prime agent for directing and managing church intrigue. Under his auspices Dr. Cumin was long the Scotish metropolitan. He was succeeded by Dr. William Robertson, whose independence of management has been often boasted of, how justly the following letter from one of his principal assistants will declare. It is very amusing to hear these pensioned sycophants dignifying themselves and their coadjutors as the only friends to government and law !

"Mr. Shaw informed you by last post of the sudden death of our friend poor Dr. Jardine. Few things could have happened more affecting to the circle of his friends and companions; and in the present situation of affairs in the church, it is a real and great public loss. Two offices are vacated by his death, beside that of minister of Edinburgh, one of the deans of the chapel royal, and dean to the order of the thistle. The last he got created for himself, without any salary, but the perquisite of £50 upon the instalment of every new knight. It is of the very greatest importance to us, that these offices be bestowed upon moderate clergymen, especially after the late prefer ment to the chaplainry of Stirling castle. The lord chief baron informed me of the plan which you was so good as to concert with him and Northumberland in my favour. I submit most entirely to you and him whether it be proper to make any application for me. Dr. Robertson, I know, has writ to Sir Alexander Gilmour and Mr. Dempster, representing, that unless the ministry choose to bestow those marks of their countenance upon such clergymen as are friends to government and law, he, for his part, will entirely

found little difficulty in obtaining, especially as in their mode of calculation, the vote of a non-residing heritor was as good as that of one who was resident, and that of him who was possessed of five hundred a year, equal to ten of one who possessed only fifty. This arithmetic, however, was understood nowhere beyond the walls of the assembly house -even there, by a respectable minority, it was derided-and individuals acting upon it, felt themselves pursued with so much reproach and infamy, that presbyteries could almost in no instance be found to undertake settlements upon such a narrow basis, and the assemblies had been under the necessity of doing that by special committees, composed of the more fearless of their followers, which ought to have been, and really was the proper duty of presbyteries. In this case, the popularity, and consequently in a great measure the usefulness of a whole neighbourhood of clergymen, was not destroyed at once, but the person so inducted was more completely degraded in the eyes of the people, and it gave a handle to a yet formidable party in the church, who were still struggling to preserve some small portion of her primeval purity, as it was, in all ordinary circumstances, altogether unconstitutional. Patronage, indeed, had now accomplished that for which it was originally intended, and what all good and wise men had predicted would be the result of its exercise-it had filled the presbyterian church of Scotland with its own creatures, and patrons were at this time

withdraw from all sort of church business and management; and he has mentioned Dr. Drysdale (for whom he had before applied for Stirling castle, without knowing that I was on the field,) myself and Mr. Lindsay, (whom Mr. Hume insisted he should name) as proper persons. I believe solicitor Dundas has recommended Mr. Webster, and one Dundas: if they should be the men, faction will be understood to be supported from above, and it is vain to think of supporting the cause of patronage any longer in this country. I have writ to lord Northumberland and the chief baron by last post; uncertain, indeed, whether the last be now in London or not. Mrs. Blair joins with me in begging to have our best respects presented to Mrs. Oswald and you; and I ever am, with the highest respect and esteem, Dear Sir, "Your most obedient, and obliged humble servant, "HUGH BLAIR."

(Signed,)

Memorials of the right honourable James Oswald, pp. 119–121.